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We sacked off our traditional way of a travelling - a night bus, this time for a shorter journey of a plane ride. Fortaleza was 1689 kilometres away from Brasilia so a night bus would have probably took a night a day and another night. We made our way to the airport via the cracking architectural buildings in Brasilia. What really impressed me about them was that they were all lit up yellow and green and created an awesome sight. We checked in our baggage, it wasn't long before we were boarding the plane. Once on the plane I experienced something I had never seen on an aeroplane before and I've flew quite a few times. We were to be sat next to a woman who was travelling with a dog. I had never seen a dog on a plane before, I was just hoping it wouldn't yap and bark the entire 2 hour 15 minute plane journey. To the right of us was a little baby too, so it looked like if it wasn't the dog yapping then the baby would be screaming, luckily the air stewardess Pamela who I impressed with my limited Portuguese gave her two cups to keep her memorised during the flight. We flew with a company called TAM who was fairly decent they provided us with snacks, a complimentary drink and put on a few American TV shows for entertainment. The flight flew by with no incidents from the dog or baby. We collected our baggage and then met our host for Fortaleza Bruno. He had come to the airport to pick us up and take us to his place where we would be stopping for three nights.
Bruno was a nice guy and had a nice flat, it was small but homely, it had a balcony which overlooked the beach, and our room was basic with two single beds. It was in the room that I made a discovery that didn't get my Fortaleza trip off to the greatest of starts. As I was sorting my s*** out, I noticed something unusual about my guitar case, I opened it up and to my disbelief the head of the guitar had snapped off leaving my instrument a right mess. On the upside it would now be three less kilograms I had to carry around with me. That night we shared a few beers with Bruno. Bruno semt a nice guy his English accent made him sound slightly German. This come as quite a surprise as when we were discussing things on AirBnB he semt a bit of a d*** saying that there would be no atmosphere for the World Cup. He had a dog called Mel who was probably the shiest dog I had ever met. He was also into his guitar music and impressed me when he put some Arctic Monkeys on the stereo. He had also provided a map saying where everything was. We talked a bit of our travels and Brazil and then headed to bed.
The next day we woke up and headed out in the blistering heat to do our usual supermarket shop. We got back to the flat and arranged with Bruno to go to the Fan Fest, we would watch the first game Argentina vs Switzerland at the flat because to avoid standing in the sun for too long and then head down to the fan fest to watch the Belgium v USA game at five. This was ideal for me as I needed to tick off Belgium and USA fan challenge. So first things were first and we had a few beers, Bruno was on screwdrivers and watched Argentina scrape by Switzerland with a goal from Di Maria in the last two minutes of extra time. We ate some noodles, and then one by one friends of Bruno arrived. He said we were waiting for one more and then we were off to the fan fest. The guy arrived but we never ended up going to the fan fest to my frustration. Instead we watched the Belgium vs USA game at his flat again whilst Bruno and his chums practiced seventies rock tunes on his guitar and bongos. Don't get me wrong they were pretty impressive, but I didn't want to be stuck in the flat all day I want to get out and enjoy Fortaleza. Next thing you know Bruno announced that him and his buddies were off to a Reggae party, I had waited around to go fan fest and he brushed us a side, I was pretty pissed off, turned out he might actual be a bit of a d*** after all. So Earl and myself had dinner and decided to make our own fun. We had a quick beer at the flat with a couple of games of s***head and then made our way to the beach front where we did a small bar crawl the highlight being a bar called Barroca de Boa which had some football charactuers outside. In there we made friends with two old boy waiters Francescali and Barney who we had a good laugh with despite the language barrier.
The next day was a day without football; we were at a city located next to the beach, so the only logical thing to do was go to the beach. So after a sausage and egg butty we made our way to Crocobeach at Praia Do Futuro, which literally translates to 'Beach of The Future' this sparked an in depth discussion on the bus ride there to what the bus of the future would entail. Earl thought there might be fully functional Iron Mask suits you could use, I on the other hand though the beach would be filled with robots offering drinks and such, this was first after ruling out a space beach because Earl quite rightfully pointed out gravity issues. When we got there though there was nothing futuristic about the beach at all, it was just you plane regular beach, sun loungers, sand, sea, donkeys and not Hover-boards, Superhero suits, Robots or Aliens. In truth the beach wasn't itself that great I'm not a beach kinda guy co of sand getting everywhere but I have seen my fair share whilst travelling and this beach would be lucky if it made my top twenty five! We did have a good time though soaking up the rays, which was made bearable by a nice ocean breeze, having a paddle in the sea and I started reading the first Game of Thrones book. It should be noted that I haven't seen the TV series yet. The sun was setting so we made our way to the back of the beach where we found a swimming pool, slide and bar area. Unfortunately the pool and slide were just closing or I would have been in there. So I settled for a bottle of Skol Beats and a discussion with Earl about how unfuturistic the beach was, or maybe the beach was named this back when donkeys weren't on beaches or sun loungers didn't exist. We had our beers and then made our way back to the flat where we showered, ate and drank a few more beers before hitting Fortaleza for our last night out there as the next day we would be making the journey to Recife. Our first stop was Barroca De Boa where we went to see our old amigos Barney and Francescali from the previous night; unfortunately they must have been on an early shift or had the day off because they were nowhere to be found, still we enjoyed a couple of the four rias beers and called it a night. What stood out for me on the stroll home in the early hours was how hot it still was and the fact that people were still playing football on the pitches, and people wonder why Brazil have such talented footballers. It seems any opportunity they get they will play football.
We were on the move again the next day, we had a midday flight to Recife, so there wasn't much time in Fortaleza to do anything apart from get showered, pack our stuff and have a fried egg sarnie. Bruno offered us a lift to the airport and in return I gave the want to be rock star my broken guitar which he was made up with as apparently that type of guitar is pretty rare in Brazil. But anyway now it was time for Recife, so until next time stay safe and take care.
Adi
xx
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